Dan Butterly, Associate Commissioner, Mountain West Conference
As the Associate Commissioner, Marketing, Dan Butterly is responsible for branding and marketing the Mountain West Conference. Butterly also directs marketing, promotions, merchandising, licensing, advertising, the MWC Radio Network, works daily with MWC television and sponsorship rights holder CBS College Sports Network on the Mountain West corporate partnership program. Butterly also works daily with television partners CBS C, The Mtn-Mountain West Sports Network and VERSUS on MWC partnership issues.
In a dual role, Butterly serves as the primary contact for men’s basketball, acting as the liaison with the men’s basketball coaches and working with all television entities on the development of the men’s basketball schedule. He serves as the tournament manager for the Conoco Mountain West Conference Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships in Las Vegas. He was the tournament manager for the 2004 and 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, First-/Second round site in Denver and served as the point of contact for the Mountain West Conference office in working with Denver Sports to secure the 2012 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Final Four for Denver. Butterly was also responsible for the creation of the recently announced Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge.
Butterly has served on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Issues Committee. He currently serves on a special NCAA Football Marketing Committee to develop and review promotional and marketing concepts designed to enhance the awareness of the NCAA Football brand.
Butterly is a staff liaison to the Mountain West Conference Joint Council and Board of Directors. He works with each institution’s athletic administration, including serving as the primary contact with marketing, ticketing, licensing and development staffs throughout the year.
Butterly directs the continual development of the Mountain West Conference Radio Network and in 2004, negotiated an agreement with KLZ (560 AM) ESPN Radio in Denver to serve as the official flagship station of the conference, which was believed to be the only conference-flagship radio agreement in the country. The MWC Radio Network has broadcast numerous events since its creation in 2000. On July 22, 2007, the Mountain West Conference announced a new flagship agreement with Mile High Sports Radio, AM1510 Sporting News Radio in Denver.
Prior to its new partnership with CBS C, Butterly served as executive producer of the MWC-TV Network, which broadcast the women’s soccer championship, regular season women’s volleyball, women’s volleyball championship, regular season women’s basketball and women’s basketball championship.
Working with Learning Through Sports, Inc., Butterly is responsible for the development of the Mountain West Conference educational initiative – Kid’s College and sportsmanship initiative – STAR Sportsmanship. Kid’s College, a K-8 educational program that assists teachers in the classroom with language and math curriculum and improving scores on individual state tests, has the opportunity to impact 13,500 elementary schools and 6.5 million students in the Mountain West Conference region. STAR Sportsmanship is geared towards educating children between the ages of 6-14 on the benefits of good sportsmanship through a tiered-approach (Stop, Think, Act, and Replay). In fact, the MWC version of STAR Sportsmanship won the 2005 BESSIE Award as best physical education software for upper elementary students. In 2006, the Mountain West Conference also launched a partnership with YBA to form a youth basketball initiative in the Mountain West region.
Butterly came to the Mountain West Conference following six years with the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), where he served most recently as assistant commissioner. He joined The Valley staff in 1993 as a marketing intern and was promoted to director of marketing in 1994, then to assistant commissioner in 1998. His responsibilities at The Valley included managing the league’s corporate sponsorship efforts, overseeing the merchandising and licensing program and administering marketing and promotions for all conference championships.
Beyond his MVC marketing duties, Butterly coordinated the league’s schedule and officiating for men’s basketball. He was also the staff contact for the MVC Television Network production and directed the Valley’s Hall of Fame golf outing. His extensive experience includes serving as the Tournament Manager for the MVC men’s basketball championship from 1994-1999 and the Game Management Director for the 1998 and 1999 NCAA Men’s Basketball Midwest Regionals hosted by the MVC in St. Louis. He also acted as the conference representative with several MVC championships, including men’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s tennis and swimming & diving.
Under Butterly’s guidance, the MVC Tournament sponsorships more than doubled, as he worked day-to-day with over 175 MVC sponsors. Butterly was instrumental in increasing the attendance figures at the men’s basketball championships from 31,000 in 1993 to over 50,000 in 1997 and each year until his departure. In addition, the 1999 NCAA Midwest Regional set all-time attendance for the largest regional crowd in NCAA history.
A native of Washington, Ill., Butterly got his start in the field of athletics as the head basketball manager under head coach Bob Bender at Illinois State University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State and in April 2005, was honored by his alma mater as the recipient of the 2005 Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Illinois State University. Butterly began his professional career working in advertising at The Pantagraph, a daily newspaper in Bloomington, Ill. Butterly now resides in Colorado Springs with wife Alaine, also an Illinois State University graduate, and daughter Jessica.
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